Pretoria - In a bizarre case of mistaken identity, police arrested a Gauteng woman for ID fraud and locked her up for nine days without bothering to verify why she shared the same identity number with a woman bearing the same name as hers.
Tandeka Duma of Gauteng and Tandeka Duma of KwaZulu-Natal shared the same ID number for 18 years.
Judge Annelie Basson, in the high court in Pretoria, differentiated the two women as Duma GP and Duma KZN in her judgment.
Both women were born in 1973, but Duma GP was born in December and Duma KZN in June.
Home Affairs had issued both with the same ID number.
It later emerged during evidence in court that Duma KZN in fact had two IDs, but she opted to use the one identical to that of Duma GP.
This landed Duma GP in hot water after she was arrested at a Game store in Joburg, where she had an account, for fraud.
Following her ordeal and embarrassment of being arrested in the crowded shop, Duma GP instituted a damages claim against the police.
Judge Basson ordered the police to pay her R300 000 in damages.
Home Affairs told the court it had issued Duma KZN with a second ID number by mistake. The judge said it was quite bizarre that she chose to use the wrong one.
Duma GP said she had revolving credit with Game. On October 27, 2010, she was called to the store, where she was arrested. She was detained until November 4.
In February the next year, all charges were withdrawn against her.
An official of Game testified that he received instructions from the credit supplier RCS to arrest Duma GP for ID fraud. He said he received a letter from RCS to which a copy of Duma KZN’s ID was attached.
On the document it was written that this was the real owner.
Duma KZN, however, told the police she never opened an account at Game. The general manager of the store said he formed a “suspicion” that Duma GP was a fraudster because RCS had said so.
He admitted that he never looked at Duma GP’s original application to open an account, despite the fact that she had held an account with the store for years.
The policeman who was called to the store to arrest Duma GP said he was handed copies of the two ID documents. The only difference between them were the pictures.
Duma GP tried to explain to the policeman that she got her ID document from Home Affairs, but he concluded it was a case of fraud. He also did not bother to verify with Home Affairs what the situation was.
He conceded to the court that he suspected there was a mistake somewhere, but added that “we at the police call that fraud”.
He also accepted that Duma KZN’s document was authentic, simply because it was issued first.
Judge Basson said the officer had no reason to suspect Duma GP was a fraudster, as he admitted the documents did not seem as if they had been tampered with.
Pretoria News